The study of literary art and the study of ourselves are ultimately the same thing. (JH)

Describes the evolution of literary criticism. (DD)

Traditionally, we English faculty have warned our students against simply identifying with a literary work's characters. For us, such attachments constitute "reading badly." But we engage in identifications, too, including ones with the work's author. A consideration of critical responses to "Benito Cereno" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin" enables us to…

Discusses a critical approach for dealing with passages of superior literary merit in otherwise mediocre works and with shifts in the nature of languages" employed within a given work. (RD)

Examines three representative short poems to illustrate some of the difficulties that traditional textual criticism would encounter with them. Outlines some ways in which different approaches could deal with these difficulties. (RL)

Between objectivity and subjectivity lies a third choice: the recreation of the relationships between self and literary structure. (JH)

Psychoanalytic approaches to literature run the risk of ignoring the "spectacular mental gymnastics" of the reader's conscious mind. (JH)

Critical discussions of reader reaction are often only disguised discussions of author intention. (JH)

The central activity of literary criticism, the understanding of literature, is related to the process of establishing a context for the works of literature being studied. Choosing not to discuss the factual elements of literary criticism, the author clarifies and concentrates on the "lower" and "upper" limits of criticism. While the "lower" limit…

The Bible still offers artists their basic myths and patterns for interpreting the American experience.

Describes the diverse responses of eight faculty members and eight graduate students to the poem "Winter Piece" by William Gibson. (DD)

By revisiting the work of the Black Caucus and the radical rhetorics connected to Black Power and the black radical tradition, in this essay the author hopes to rebuild a frame where the picture of an African-American-vernacularized paradigm for critical literacy and social justice can emerge. She revisits the twinning of "Black Power/Black…

Shows how a single passage might be handled by New Criticism, structuralism, deconstructionism, psychological criticism, and feminist criticism. Concludes that a plurality of critical approaches is better than a unity of approach. (RS)